Historical relevance of common clone PC was Re: YADA10YR (Yet Another Discussion About the 10 Year Rule)

From: Jason McBrien <jbmcb_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Fri Sep 5 08:38:00 2003

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tothwolf" <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 4:09 AM
Subject: Re: Historical relevance of common clone PC was Re: YADA10YR (Yet
Another Discussion About the 10 Year Rule)


> On Thu, 4 Sep 2003, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> > On Thu, 4 Sep 2003, Bob Shannon wrote:
> >
> > > I don't see much classic potential in a Geo Metro, no matter how old
> > > it gets. Same for any clone PC thrown together from off-the shelf
> > > parts, or even a brand-name 'me-too' PC.
> >
> > Actually, at some point in the future, common (for today) PC clones that
> > were built from parts by individual users will be very historically
> > relevant as examples of the time when PC's became a commodity!
>
> And maybe those "Sams" 386-486 computers that were sold as part of those
> learn-to-repair PCs courses will become highly collectible ;)
>
> -Toth

Or you can get your degree. You can major in computer repair or business
administration!

Wasn't that the era when PC's became commodity enough that "Repairing" one
meant running a DOS floppy checker on a drive to see if it's dead, and
throwing a new one in if it was? I remember my friend's dad had a floppy
drive alignment gadget, hooked up to an oscilloscope and let you realign the
heads of your floppy drive. Cost twice as much as a new floppy drive, but if
you fixed one twice, it's paid off :)
Received on Fri Sep 05 2003 - 08:38:00 BST